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| Marseille maintain lead |
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Mathieu Valbuena's sixth-minute strike was all Marseille needed to overcome lowly St Etienne and restore their five-point lead in the Ligue 1 table.
OM had seen their advantage trimmed to two points earlier in the afternoon when Auxerre won 3-0 at Toulouse.
Their response was immediate if not convincing, with St Etienne hitting a post late on, but regardless Didier Deschamps' side moved closer to their first league title in 17 years.
Marseille's early goal was created when Brandau robbed the ball off Dimitri Payet and slipped a pass through for Valbuena who showed composure to slide his shot low past an exposed Jeremy Janot.
With an early lead the hosts played with freedom and on another day would have had a second inside the opening half hour.
Janot made a good save to keep out Mamadou Niang's close-range header after he was picked out by Lucho Gonzalez's free-kick.
Marseille were then denied a second by the frame of the goal when Lucho again fed Niang but his firm header rebounded away.
St Etienne warned of their threat before the break when Bakary Sako rifled a shot that flew dangerously across the face of goal before Payet's sweet drive flew just over.
After the interval OM tried without luck for a second with Brandau shooting over after a surging run before Laurent Bonnart placed a header wide after Valbuena's run and cross.
With just a one-goal lead OM were susceptible to a counter-attack and were thankful when Emmanuele Riviere stroked Cedric Varrault's pull back straight into the arms of Steve Mandanda.
And the hosts were riding their luck in the end as Yohan Benalouane headed a long free-kick against the post, but still they held on to remain strong favourites for the title with four games to play.
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